A 16-year-old Wellington student died over the weekend after attending a party at which alcohol was consumed, Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators said.

Paramedics who tried to resuscitate Ashley Ramnauth on Sunday found alcohol in her system, sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

Ramnauth was a Lake Worth High School honor roll student and the daughter of Hollywood Police Officer Hansman Ramnauth.

She "apparently made a bad decision to consume energy drinks and alcohol in combination," according to a statement from her family released Tuesday through the Palm Beach County School District. She "did not have a lot of experience with alcohol and did not have a known problem with alcohol," the family added.

Sheriff's investigators are awaiting the results of a toxicology report that will determine if there were drugs or alcohol in the 10th-grader's system at the time of her death.

Investigators suspect Ramnauth or her friends were drinking alcohol at the party but declined to say if energy drinks were consumed there as well, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Pete Palenzuela said.

Ramnauth wanted to be a lawyer and was in the school's Criminal Justice Academy, which is designed to prepare students for careers in criminal justice and related fields, her friends said.

"She was a straight-A student and very determined," said Jesse Dallsingh, 16, of Lake Worth, who knew Ramnauth for more than a year. "She wasn't the kind to drink."

Increasingly popular, the drink combination of depressant and stimulant affects heart rate and function, which can lead to cardiac arrest, experts said. Energy drinks allow people to drink more without realizing the effect of the alcohol.

In March, paramedics took four Weston schoolboys to a hospital after they became ill from drinking an "energy-boosting" liquid not meant for children, authorities said. The boys were sweating and suffering from increased heart rates and lightheadedness. They drank Redline, a combination fat-burning and energy enhancement drink marketed as a "freaky scientific" breakthrough on the Web site of the company that makes it.

On Saturday, Ramnauth went on a school outing to Islands of Adventure in Orlando with her academy peers as part of an end-of-the-year trip, Lake Worth High School Principal Ian Saltzman said.

After the students returned to the school at 9 p.m., Ramnauth and three other students told their parents they were going to friends' homes, Barbera said. Instead, they attended a party in the 2300 block of Club House Drive west of West Palm Beach, she said.

Sometime Sunday morning, Ramnauth and a friend were dropped off at the friend's home in the Biltmore Terrace neighborhood in the 4800 block of Dolphin Drive west of Lake Worth, Barbera said.

After Ramnauth and her friend talked in her room, her friend went to the bathroom and returned to find Ramnauth passed out, she said. The friend and her parents performed CPR and called 911.

Paramedics rushed Ramnauth to JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, where she was pronounced dead at 12:37 p.m. Detectives were called to the home at around 11:50 a.m.

A man who answered the door Tuesday at the home on Dolphin Drive said, "We're all devastated." He declined to give his name or comment further.

Saltzman said grief counselors were called in to help students deal with Ramnauth's death.

"She was a fine student and this is very tragic," he said. "My condolences go out to the family during this difficult time."

Ramnauth's family asked in their statement that their daughter be remembered for her "numerous accomplishments and not by the mistake she made in consuming high energy drinks and alcohol in combination."

Staff Writers Stephanie Horvath and Patty Pensa and Staff Researchers Barbara Hijek and William Lucey contributed to this report.

Leon Fooksman can be reached at lfooksman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6647.